This Week in Westminster

25 February 2008

After giving evidence at the Public Inquiry into the dispute at Mill House Caravan Park on Monday, Gordon returned to Westminster to attend to Parliamentary Business. In between his commitments on the Pension Bill Committee, Mr Banks…

On Tuesday, pressed Dawn Primarolo, the Minister for Public Health on the labelling of food particularly for those with food allergies such as Coeliac Disease. Mr Banks was keen to press the point that without proper labelling of food, many people are severely limited in their choice of foods.

The Food Standards Agency has recently issued two best practice guidance documents for food businesses. One aimed at producers of pre-packed foods to help them eliminate the possible cross-contamination of allergenic ingredients and the second is intended to help those businesses providing food in restaurants, sandwich bars, delicatessens etc where the food is not pre-packed.

On Wednesday, Gordon contributed to the debate on the European Treaty of Lisbon and took the opportunity to question Foreign Secretary David Miliband whether he considers European common defence policy or NATO to be the cornerstone of Europe's future defence?

Mr Miliband stated that although the cornerstone of our defence was NATO he believes that common European Defence and NATO should complement each other in the future.

Later in the debate, Gordon chose to question Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague on his lack of consistency on the issue of referendums. Mr Banks reminded the House that in 1998, Mr Hague argued that referendums eroded the democratic process. Mr Hague did not deny his comments.

On Thursday, Gordon turned to the issue of Adult Apprenticeships and questioned Minister David Lammy about what the UK Government is doing to increase the number of adult apprenticeships.

Mr Lammy responded that for the first time, funding will be targeted specifically at expanding apprenticeships for adults aged over 25. That will mean 30,000 such apprenticeships costing £90 million over the next three years. Mr Lammy also pointed out that progress in Scotland seemed to much slower in implementing similar changes because the Scottish Government does not afford it much priority. Failure in Scotland to match Westminster’s commitment to apprenticeships will have some serious implications for adult learning across the UK.

It was late night voting on Thursday night as the House of Lords sent back the Banking (Special Provisions) Bill with amendments to the House of Commons. However with a degree of negotiation the Bill was eventually passed and made into law thus nationalising Northern Rock and offering a degree of stability.